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Administrative Lies And Philosopher-Kings, David I. Simpson

Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)

[extract] I want to consider the question: whether it is acceptable for those who govern to lie to those they govern. I suspect that many would reply that while it is an ideal of liberal and enlightenment values that such acts not occur, psychological, epistemic and political realities make them necessary for good government, and therefore acceptable under certain conditions. Rather than address directly the intuitions behind such a response, I shall consider the question in the light of the apparent recommendation in the Republic that the rulers of the city of the Republic (the philosopher-kings) sometimes lie to its …